


All We Have Are Each Other

by Atma



Category: A Dark Room (Doublespeak Games)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 06:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atma/pseuds/Atma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mysterious traveler arrives on a new world only to find herself lost.</p>
<p>Until a builder comes in and changes her life forever.</p>
<p>Contains author's self-insert shipped with a canon character and spoilers for the whole game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All We Have Are Each Other

I'm lucky; I'd found enough wood and built a small hut on my own before winter hit. The snow started one day and did not let up. All I could see for miles in every direction were half dead trees, scant few animal trackings, and a white blanket over everything. 

It was cold. I settled in with my knife for the long winter and began to stoke my fire. Don't die on me, I don't want to die either. You're all I got. There's nothing else here. There's nobody else. Just me.

I'm alone. Shit.

* * 

Days passed. I'd go out, mantle hood over my head, trying not to freeze as I cut wood and dead fruit to live on. If I was lucky, I'd find a wounded animal and put it out of its misery and eat it. I returned to my hut once the sun set and curled up by my fire, praying to whatever gods this world had I'd be found or able to leave soon.

There had to be something out there as one night, my door burst open and a figure slumped in the nearest corner, cold. I immediately closed the door and stoked the flames, putting my hands on their shoulders and making sure they were alive.

They barely were. Thank gods.

* *

My next few days saw a redoubled effort to gather wood and food, helping the poor thing that came in, hoping they'd make it through and could talk soon. Luck would have it that night they finally came to and spoke.

She called herself the builder. Whether she had a name or not only she knew; or perhaps she forgot. But it's what I would call her for the rest of our time together. She was the builder, and she was tall, strong, and lean. Most of us were; food, especially meat, was scarce.

Once she had recovered, she began to take the extra wood I'd stockpiled and began to build things. Traps, huts, carts. Basic things, all done much faster and much sturdier than I ever would have been able to craft. All the while she would mumble that if we built it, they would come.

She was useful, this builder. Thanks to her, we had more meat and had enough wood to survive the coldest of nights. Perhaps this barren world wasn't so bad after all.

* *

To my surprise, people came in from seemingly nowhere and settled in the huts we'd made. In return for giving them shelter and warmth, they became our hunters and gatherers. My energy would be spared, as they saw me as their leader. Builder was right; they did come.

Me, a leader. But it's whom they wanted.

I immediately took to protecting this precious life, fending off any feral beasts or thieves that would make their way in.

Still, some died. I made it my personal job to bury them. They were my people, and I lead them. It should be my duty to give them dignity in death.

All the while, builder built, her sturdiness and wits keeping her well alive. It seemed her and I were the only ones constantly spared the indignity of injury or death. No beast would devour her; this I was sure of.

I began to trust her the same way the villagers trusted me.

* *

A while passed and my village grew. It wasn't what I was expecting to see come from such a dead, cold area. There was life again; people built and cooked and forged and found purpose once again in this lonely world.

But we could only build so far. No matter how amazing builder was, she was still just one woman.

I decided then I would take the armor and weapons we had been developing and make my way into the world outside the village and see what was out there. Someone had to, and I was their leader. I should eke out new homes for them. Give them hope. Give them a second chance.

That night I told builder what I intended to do. I said there was a chance I would die, and if I did, she would be in charge now, as she was the one I could trust most. I know they'd survive if they had her guiding them.

Builder didn't say anything. Instead she just nodded and held me close. I felt warm and odd; did she not want me to leave? No, it wasn't that. She just didn't want me to die.

Fine then. For her sake, I vowed then only to live.

* *

I awoke with the sun creeping in through the wall cracks, hitting my eyes, on the floor by the fire, now reduced to embers. I had nothing on, save for my cape half draped over me. I sat up and looked next to me; Builder was there, the other half of my cape on her. 

Memories of last night rushed back into my head. It was obvious what had transpired, and I will not recount it. But it was now clear to me she trusted me just as much as I did her, without ever even knowing each others' real names.

Yeah, I had to live. I couldn't betray this.

I got up, equipped myself, and left my cape there on her for today. Another log on the fire and I was out. Sleep well, builder.

* *

I didn't find much on my first outing; you can only go so far on so little rations. I cleaned up an iron mine, which looked long abandoned. There was civilization here before, or at least signs of it. But now the town could evolve and grow stronger, as I would too. Iron is better than furs and leather. And it'd give builder something to do too.

On my way back, I found the ruins of a town. I thought it'd have supplies, but it was filled with angry scavengers. Perhaps, now that it was clean, I could turn it into a permanent supply point.

The ruins made it even more clear that people once lived here. How long ago, I couldn't tell. Everything was busted up in ways both natural and not that it made it impossible to tell.

The iron, though, helped us tremendously.

Hope rose again.

* *

It rapidly became an era of swords, steam, and iron. My treks out became longer and heartier, blade raised high and proud as I found new mines and converted old ruins to new use. My town had become a city of steel and sulphur soon after, and the villagers rejoiced when they re-invented guns.

They could defend themselves well. And builder was ever happier to have more work, making her nicer to be around. When I wasn't out exploring, I was usually with her, or just watching her work. She would bandage my wounds up and keep me warm at night.

I didn't mean for that to happen.

I wasn't supposed to find love here. But there we were, holding each other tight and close, her kissing me before I left on my expeditions out.

The brave leader had fallen in love with her builder.

How could I leave her behind?

* *

I had found the remains of my old ship one day by chance. When I crashed here on this world, I had no way of tracking where I wandered off to. The more new territory I charted, the closer I came to finding it. And it was salvageable. I had my way out.

And all around were bits of alloy scattered to repair it. My village was almost at peak performance; they would survive. Every town and abandoned house I found was converted to usable territory again. They knew how to fight, how to forge, how to cook. 

This world would thrive again in time.

My job here was finished. I took my ship back and began the repairs almost instantly. I reinforced the hull as much as it could bear and prepared to leave this planet for my next one.

* *

It came time for me to say goodbye. The town had started to spread outwards, making their own expeditions and moving small groups into the smaller towns and reviving them. It was always nice to see a job well done. 

I just wondered how many of them were there when whatever war took this land struck. My journeys provided too many hints that this planet nearly died fighting each other over who knows what. The apocalypse had happened, but somehow I made sure it would not be the end.

I took just my clothes, enough rations, and a sword with me. Still, as I opened my ship's door, I hesitated.

Could I really leave her behind? My builder. If she was with me, she would be able to most certainly help me revive the next world, and the next.

My job is officially recorded down somewhere as a professional remaker of civilizations lost to tragedy. I was never supposed to take on assistant. My existence was supposed to be forever lonely.

But just this once, I said fuck it. 

I'm taking my builder with me.

* *

It was night when we left. I took her hand and lead her aboard. Off together we went into the stars like a comet, streaking across the blackened sky, leaving only embers and smoke behind us.

We left together.

And we landed together on a barren new world.

All I can say is we're lucky we had found enough wood and built a house together before winter hit. The snow started one day and did not let up. All we could see for miles in every direction were half dead trees, scant few animal trackings, and a white blanket over everything. 

But this brave leader had her builder.

And that strong tall builder had her leader.

And it's all we'd ever need out in the stars again.


End file.
